The virtual explosion of technical advances in microelectronics, digital computers and software have changed the face of modern society. In fact, these technological advances have become so important and pervasive that this explosion is sometimes referred to as "the information revolution." Through telephone lines, cables, satellite communications and the like, information and resources are ever increasingly being accessed and shared.
A request for information is called a query. Very often, particularly with remotely networked computers (such as the Internet), the retrieval of information or data responsive to a query is slow or otherwise expensive to retrieve. For instance, the retrieval of information from a remote location is limited by the speed of the connection, which is sometimes referred to as bandwidth. In the case of the Internet, the bandwidth is typically limited by the throughput capability of a modem or the remote computer from which information is being retrieved.
Once information is retrieved, it is often desirable to store the information locally, where it can be quickly and easily accessed. One such example of local storage is volatile or nonvolatile cache memory. Local storage is a relative term depending upon the source of the information and can include many variations. For instance, information retrieved over the Internet from a distant server could be storage locally in a server within a local network. As a further example, information retrieved for a server on a local network could be stored locally on a workstation. While local storage of information has an advantage of quick and inexpensive retrieval, it is desirable for such information to be organized for subsequent retrieval. In part, the present invention provides a method and means for characterizing query results for subsequent retrieval.